Unable to use AP mode

Dear all. I am trying to enable AP mode in my BPI-R2 Board and not able to make it work. I found plenty of discussions about the AP mode on R2 board and good wiki page given by @frank-w However, the given steps are not working straight away, required more effort to make it work and hence I would like to create a dedicated discussion for AP mode alone.

The reference links I followed :
http://www.fw-web.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=en:bpi-r2:wlan

I enabled the AP mode by echo A >/dev/wmtWifi and used wifi.sh script given by Frank. I can see the WIFI name on my mobile and getting authentication problem when I am trying to connect with my R2 board. Attached my hostapd.conf file here. hostapd.conf (239 Bytes)

I am using Ubuntu 18.04. Kernel 4.14.32 precompiled kernel by Frank.

My log on the terminal is as follows,

ap0: Deauthentication callback for STA 84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea
ap0: Removing STA 84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea from kernel driver
nl80211: sta_remove -> DEL_STATION ap0 84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea --> 0 (Success)
ap0: STA 84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea MLME: MLME-DEAUTHENTICATE.indication(84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea, 2)
ap0: STA 84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea MLME: MLME-DELETEKEYS.request(84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea)
wpa_driver_nl80211_set_key: ifindex=19 (ap0) alg=0 addr=0x4f5b98 key_idx=0 set_tx=1 seq_len=0 key_len=0
   addr=84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea
nl80211: Event message available
nl80211: Drv Event 20 (NL80211_CMD_DEL_STATION) received for ap0
nl80211: Delete station 84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea
ap0: Event DISASSOC (1) received
ap0: STA 84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea IEEE 802.11: disassociated
ap0: STA 84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea WPA: event 2 notification
wpa_driver_nl80211_set_key: ifindex=19 (ap0) alg=0 addr=0x4f5b98 key_idx=0 set_tx=1 seq_len=0 key_len=0
   addr=84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea
WPA: 84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea WPA_PTK entering state DISCONNECTED
WPA: 84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea WPA_PTK entering state INITIALIZE
wpa_driver_nl80211_set_key: ifindex=19 (ap0) alg=0 addr=0x4f5b98 key_idx=0 set_tx=1 seq_len=0 key_len=0
   addr=84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea
nl80211: Set STA flags - ifname=ap0 addr=84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea total_flags=0x0 flags_or=0x0 flags_and=0xfffffffe authorized=0
ap0: STA 84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea IEEE 802.1X: unauthorizing port
Could not set station 84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea flags for kernel driver (errno=11).
nl80211: sta_remove -> DEL_STATION ap0 84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea --> 0 (Success)
ap_free_sta: cancel ap_handle_timer for 84:cf:bf:8a:1b:ea

I followed all the steps on Frank’s wiki page. But unable to make it work successfully. Any kind of help is appreciated.

i assume its not the full log…i experienced some problems after a clean (re)boot caused from random number generator

apt-get install rng-tools
echo 'HRNGDEVICE=/dev/urandom' >> /etc/default/rng-tools

and reboot

Ok, I done the steps you recommend and then called wifi.sh. Still facing the same authentication problem. Full log attached here, full_log_ap.txt (27.3 KB)

try to disable

bridge=br-lan

and give ap0 an IP and configure your dhcp-server for ap0

Thanks for the inputs.

I commented bridge=br-lan on my hostapd.conf file. Now I was able to cross the authentication issue. It is authenticated and trying to obtain the IP address for while. The log is here, log_ap_ip_failure.txt (16.1 KB)

I assumed, the wifi.sh script already set the IP address

I followed the steps for dnsmasq.conf & interfaces.conf and start dnsmasq on the wifi.sh script.

Still not getting any IP address on the client device. I have no idea about whether I should still configure dhcp.conf as per the instructions given in BPI-R2 new image: Ubuntu with Linux kernel 4.14 release V1.0 2018-4-28

Right wifi.sh configures ip and restarts dnsmasq which also acts as dhcp-server…see my wiki for configuration

Hello, Did you see here : http://wiki.banana-pi.org/Getting_Started_with_R2

image

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@Jackzeng Good work and working straight away with some minor modifications required. I followed the instructions and confirmed that the AP mode is working fine. I have given my each steps and logs here, Howto_AP_Mode_Setup_BPI-R2.txt (11.8 KB)

Modification required :

  • What is “And a bridge” after "dhcpd ap0 -pf /var/run/dhcpd.pid "?.
  • brctl addif br wan : I am getting the error, bridge br does not exist!. “br” supposed to be “br0”

my network interface which can search internet is wan, and ip is 192.168.30.102, so I config ap0 as follows:

I assumed, you are getting internet through wan interface. So you bridge br0 & wan. I am using internet through by 4G module, wwan0 and want to distribute internet from 4G module into WIFI/Ethernet clients. Can I use, “brctl addif br0 wwan0”?. I tried. But my 4G internet is disconnected once I issued “brctl addif br0 wwan0”. Can you give me some input on how to distribute my 4G internet via this bridge?.

  • I was not able to get any IP address assigned when I connect my PC on 4 LAN ports. Its failed to get an IP address. I am not sure this document covered to set the IP configuration for LAN0/1/2/3 ports.

TIA.

https://www.fw-web.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=en/bpi-r2/network/start#dhcp

there is also a link to dnsmasq page

there are posts from other users saying bridging ap0 does not work, so please test first without that bridge in hostapd.conf…you can bridge lan-Ports , but hostapd/dnsmasq should listen to these interfaces (ap0,lanbr0) separately

  • set an ip to ap0 (or better change it in my wifi.sh)
  • configure range for ap0 in /etc/dnsmasq.d/
  • you can use same structure to run dnsmasq on lan0-lan3 / lanbr0
  • please do not bridge lan+wan…it is a router and it should forward traffic with firewall. bridging it will not work because your local ips cannot be used public (NAT/PAT) and if you have no local ips (multiple public like ipv6) you whole lan is available from public inet without any security

@frank-w Forward the internet from 4G into AP is high priority for me and not interested on LAN & Security issues. Like to do that later.

Do you have any inputs for me on how to routing internet from wwan0 (4G Module) into WIFI clients via AP?.

TIA.

It’s the same as routing to other wan like pppoe…i think you need nat/pat too enable routing for v4/v6 and define wwan0 as default gateway

For routing from internet to clients you have to define port-forwardings

Ok, I managed to forward the internet from 4G module into WIFI as Access Point. Tested on both 4.14.x & 4.4.70 kernels. I followed this tutorial as reference, https://esther.codes/post-pi_router_story/ Given the below steps are only for reference from the above link and not a detailed steps.

  • You may install some packages like udhcpd, hostapd, openssl & iptables-persistent

  • echo A >/dev/wmtWifi

  • Edit the /etc/udhcpd.conf and configure IP address as per your interest. I just used “ap0” as my interface.

  • Enable DHCP server by editing /etc/default/udhcpd file

  • Configure your hostapd.conf file, /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf

  • Configure ap0 interface in /etc/network/interfaces

  • Restart the network, /etc/init.d/networking restart

  • IP forward by sh -c "echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward"

  • NAT enable by the following rules. Here my 4G module is connected with “wwan0”

  • iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o wwan0 -j MASQUERADE

  • iptables -A FORWARD -i wwan0 -o ap0 -m state --state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

  • iptables -A FORWARD -i ap0 -o wwan0 -j ACCEPT

  • save the rules by sh -c "iptables-save > /etc/iptables.ipv4.nat"

  • service udhcpd start

  • hostapd -d /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf &

  • dhcpd ap0 -pf /var/run/dhcpd.pid

Now you should able to access the internet by BPI-R2 WIFI Router. LAN ports are not targeting here.

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If you make the forwarding-rules without ap0 you can use also lan-ports…blocking stuff have to be before this (if some ports should have no access to inet)

Can you give me an example for LAN0?.

  • iptables -A FORWARD -i lan0 -o wwan0 -j DROP #drop all packets that will be forwarded from lan0 to wwan0

#allow every thing else forwarded to wwan0

  • iptables -A FORWARD -i wwan0 -m state --state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
  • iptables -A FORWARD -o wwan0 -j ACCEPT